Tag: education

“The goal of education is not to produce secondary school students who can only obtain high scores, but to train them to pursue their own knowledge independently.” (Feng Teng, M., 2017; Predictive effects of writing strategies…EFL writing proficiency.)

My thoughts

Oh, what a noble goal. Oh, if only that were really true of the current educational system in the US. Maybe it was in the past. Maybe it still is in random towns and other countries. But today’s system appears to be focused predominantly on test scores and political correctness. I remember when it was more important for teachers to focus on teaching students how to learn, and how to think, not WHAT to think. Or maybe I only wish I remember that time; hard to say. Luckily, parents can still play a part in raising their children with a curiosity and quest for knowledge, and teach them how to question and reason and not simply learn to recite facts and numbers and call it a day.

“Autonomous learners are often motivated learners and autonomy often leads to better, more effective work.” (Feng Teng, M., 2017; Learner autonomy: An educational goal of teaching English as a foreign language.)

My thoughts

Individuals learning any topic or skill will always learn faster and work more productively if they are personally interested in what they’re learning and free to study it and learn about it without restrictions or outside influence. This is often difficult to find in standard traditional education systems, in my opinion. Structure is important for many aspects of life. But when it comes to learning, I feel that breaking free from structured instruction is the best motivation to explore and truly examine a subject fully.